Employment laws in the U.K. are subtly changing and are following an important trend that is set to continue and worth taking note of.
This trend includes addressing new types of working patterns, family-friendly rights, work-life balance and supporting positive mental health at work, highlighting the types of issues that U.K. employers will be facing in the months and years to come.
One such change, which is associated with the gig economy, is the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act, which received royal assent on Sep. 19, and gives all workers the legal right to request a predictable working pattern.
The act is part of a package of proposed legislation that the U.K. government has backed over the last few months. These include offering pregnant women and new parents greater protection against redundancy, and entitling employees who are also unpaid carers to a period of unpaid leave.
These changes are part of current trends and themes in the U.K. human resources landscape. But what is behind them, and how might the changes affect U.K. employers?
In recent months, a lot of data has been released regarding the 2.5 million economically inactive people in the U.K. who have not been able to work in at least the last four weeks and will not be able to look for work for at least the next two.
According to a report published by the Office for National Statistics in July, nearly two-fifths of those not working reported five or more health conditions. The most prevalent health condition, although not the main reason for most people's absence, was depression and anxiety.
In its "back to work" budget in March, the U.K. government looked at tackling sickness absence by changing benefits eligibility to encourage those who were able to look for work.
The budget proposed changes to the doctor's "fit note" regime to make more use of occupational health as a means to help people get back into the workplace.
But these have been seen as cynical measures in some quarters by depriving people of rights in order to drive up the amount of tax collected from earned income.
However, these proposals have been made to address a problem that has been signposted for several years.
Recently, there have been multiple reviews and recommendations relating to mental health at work, and an employer's responsibilities in that regard.
For example, the Stevenson/Farmer "Thriving at Work" review in 2017 stressed the importance of an employer's responsibilities and recommended core standards to ensure better employee mental health support.
These included having a mental health work plan, raising awareness through communications, promoting a work-life balance and routine monitoring.
The theme of these reviews has been to stress the importance of having a good workplace culture and the impact of this on employee mental wellbeing and health.
Coupled with this, there appears to be a change in the approach from the Gen Z workforce, which has a more transactional attitude toward work and a higher regard for an employer's responsibilities toward mental health and work-life balance.
Although there are many recommendations regarding workplace practices, there is not, as yet, any significant new law in this area. However, it is clear that this is the direction of travel.
There are potential changes to rights at work in the next year or two, depending on the outcome of the U.K.'s general election, which is likely to take place in 2024 and must take place by January 2025 at the latest. These potential changes build on the same themes to strengthen job security.
The Labour Party has already signposted the types of reforms that it will introduce and has made a "cast iron commitment" that an Employment Rights Bill will be produced within the first 100 days of office.
The party has indicated that it will make the right not to be unfairly dismissed a "day one" employment right, as well as removing the current cap on unfair dismissal awards, which is the lower of 52 weeks' pay or £105,707 ($127,904).
Other initiatives that the party is proposing include bringing in the "right to disconnect," which is the idea that once workers finish their contractual hours, they do not need to respond to out-of-hours communications.
The Conservative Party's proposed reforms include building on the 2018 Good Work Plan with improvements to certain family-friendly rights, as well as bringing in the right to make flexible working requests from day one.
Regardless of the party in power, this all feeds into the types of questions, concerns and expectations that a U.K. employer might get from its workforce.
There is now a greater emphasis on workplace culture and an employer's responsibilities, since the perception of having a poor culture could have a powerful impact on, for example, hiring, retention and an employer's reputation in the public domain. This could help fuel the particular types of in-work issues that employers face in the current landscape.
Employment issues tend to be cyclical, and what we're seeing currently in the cost-of-living crisis is similar to after the financial crisis in 2008. Employees who are losing their jobs have financial concerns and worries about their livelihood. This in turn increases the likelihood of claims.
Unfair or constructive dismissal claims are still capped, but discrimination and whistleblowing claims are not.
One of the flip sides of employees in the modern generation having a heightened expectation on employers to provide a positive work environment is the palpable sense of injustice or of being wronged if an employee feels that their concerns have not been met, or they have been treated badly.
While this does not automatically translate to a discrimination claim — unless, for example, the unfair treatment is because of a protected characteristic — there could be grounds for a whistleblowing claim if an employee says that the workplace environment is toxic, and that their health and safety is endangered as a result.
Workplace culture may be key to understanding the types of issues that HR practitioners in the U.K. need to manage in the coming months and years, as well as understanding any new developments in employment law in the U.K.
This cultural emphasis on workplace culture and an employee's perception of it could not only feed into hiring decisions and the ability to hire, but could also affect the ability to retain employees. It may also feature in the types of grievances and claims an employer faces, put leadership styles in the spotlight from a public relations perspective, and increase the risks for potential liability.
Originally published in Law360
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